ROCK IN BOURLON festival 2023
Mini Live Report

23 & 24/06/2023 in Bourlon 

This cool festival still offers eclectic musics and is located in a quiet rural place in the north of France.
On the menu, stoner doom, alternative or extreme music... Everyone in the crowd with a somewhat "hippie" or relaxed state of mind.

Day1:
LORD ELEPHANT (Italy): It's a quite cool stoner doom band, nothing new, but they play quite well and it's cool to begin the festival.

MONTAGNE (France): This band is rather something like sludge hardcore. They play quite well, they are tight, but it's not really for me. There are blastbeats here & there, but also grooves that do not speak to me... Maybe this is a bit too clean? This said their music could please fans of the style.

ASBEST (Switzerland): This is some kind of noise rock/ post punk band. Their music seemed to be quite repetitive/ basic at the beginning, but some riffs contain some kind of austere atmosphere a bit in the style of... "black metal"? (Cf old Darkthrone). They sounded a bit like the old band L7, less heavy and more "indie/ noise" in a little austere manner, with not necessarily melodious vocals that bring a "crude" aspect (The guitarist/ vocalist and bassist are women). Not necessarily my kind at first sight, but I would have to dig deeper to have a real opinion.
 

RED SUN ATACAMA (France): This was a cool and quite dynamic stoner rock band, the set was pretty alive and rock'n roll. Some cool bass parts, some nice acceleration. It was quite colorful. I liked this set well.

AUTHOR & PUNISHER (Usa): I didn't know what to expect according to the online extracts, I don't listen to a lot of industrial anymore.... But in fact this was quite good, the style was some kind of dark electro/ industrial metal influenced by the 90's, so the first albums of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry (Before the "thrash" epoch), maybe early Wumpscut, with a more "doom" side in the tempo... I stuck well to the dark/ introspective atmosphere, sometimes I was almost totally into it (ahah)... I wonder how the "power tools" of the vocalist work. Perhaps it was a bit too NIN influenced in the sounds by moments.

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT (Usa): I heard a song of theirs one or two years ago, it was twisted, almost frightening, something like extreme black death with industrial samples... But it seems the style of the band has changed, half of their set this day was "jazz"... It wasn't bothering, but it didn't move me more than that. I liked a bit better the more death black songs, one reminded me of Fallen Christ but in a less evil manner, the other had a more crazy atmosphere (Somewhat in the spirit of post modern/ post apocalyptic dementia)... Globally a quite nice set, but not more than that.

FANGE (France): When they arrive on stage, you see they aren't here to laugh. They play a mixture of hardcore, sludge, industrial with also some death metal riffs. This is a quite interesting blend, there are disillusioned parts, others to sound more brutal in the original "indus metal" style (So what came before Rammstein and electro metal...) It sounded a bit like a mixture of MUCKRACKERS (Rather fast parts) and maybe the last PESTILENCE album ("Exitivm" for the mix of death metal with a spirit of "tortured futuristic horrors"), this said with more disillusioned and "atmospheric" parts but in somber/ sludge shades. I wouldn't listen to this style everyday (Bad trip alert) but I would say to fans of the style to try these sounds.

WEEDEATER (Usa): This is a quite fat sounding doom stoner band, with sludge tendencies but not too much. I wasn't a big fan of the vocals at first approach, but the personality of the vocalist/ bassist (That seems a bit like an old fisherman from the depths of the American countryside who doesn't give a fuck) was quite funny. This is quite cool musically, with quite cool and warm riffs, it didn't reinvent the genre but flew easily.

Contrary to the previous year, the two stages are now located on the same site, so you don't loose time anymore to walk to the other site, this is a good improvement. There were a bit too many peoples in front of the small stage by moments, but it's the price of success...
I'm quite happy with this first day of the fest, I made a couple of nice or very cool discoverings.
Not necessarily in the styles of music I listen to the most, but it enlarges my musical horizons live in real time.

Day 2:
I thought I would see GRAVEKULT (Black'n roll/ France), but I arrived after their set because it was necessary to find somewhere to park the car... The festival is starting to have success, there are already "some" peoples in the village at 3 PM AhAh.

EARTHBONG (Germany): This band plays very slow doom stoner, this is really slowed down with long songs. I don't really have an opinion, I was still trying to "lower the temperature" (Car without air-conditioning = Inside the microwave feeling), but their riffs don’t seem to be bad in the style and the quite death metal vocals do the job... This stuff seems to be quite good to sleep or trip after smoking some green stuffs...

TRAQUENARD (France): Apparently this is a young band, they mix 80's thrash metal with a bit of crossover and punk. I could listen to their set, but I found the music quite common and a bit light, perhaps a bit too much (Every songs didn't seem to be so tight... This point could be improved to play in festivals). Perhaps I listened to too much of old thrash metal to find something to discover here?

GEWALT (Germany): For me this was the best band of the afternoon. Their mixture of post punk/ industrial rock with quite a lot of 80's influences and "old school" industrial noises kicked it quite well... They really have influences of the old way, also a side of more regular rock (Sounding a bit rigid and more frankly cold) that turns into more explosive industrial... I started pondering about the origins of industrial rock in the 80's and tripping on "indus" things, thinking about East Germany of the time... Vocals in German to add some rigor (I felt like listening to DAS ICH at the beginning, but this is not close musically). They also have some more "mainstream" parts that brought a somewhat quirky side (Ex: Some electro parts)... But the industrial or cold rock sides often come back to the front. If they had a CD or a tape I would have bought one, but there were only vynils on the merch stand.

YAROTZ (France): This is a post hardcore band with quite a lot of extreme metal influences, and they sent the gravel! Sometimes I almost had the feeling of listening to fast death metal (Quite close to Morbid angel or some polish death), while other parts are a bit... sludge? Perhaps this death metal impression was due in part to the sound during the festival (I paid a closer attention later at home and some riffings seem closer to fast post Hc, like Ananda for example). Anyway, this was a nicely brutal and efficient set.

SUM OF THE R (Finland): This was a more "black doom" project with a quite nagging, quite heady style...  With a bass guitar, drums, a few samples, and an individual hidden behind a tuft of almost white hairs that was emitting black metal screams. A song sounded like somewhat mid-tempo black metal, another one was more frankly doomy, another one seemed more "trip hop"... I found it refreshing for one or two songs, then some kind of tiredness took place.

This was the end of the second day for me, quite a lot of bands were still scheduled, but I already saw a couple of them before, and this was enough of new musical discoverings in my hears for two days... (Don't call me Grand'pa). Now let's come back to death metal, to the cavern, and the gleam of the underground candle.